Figure 2 Iron Bull
All the major ally NPCs in DA:I, companions and advisors, have certain crisis moments. These crisis moments always involve one or more scripted cutscenes with dialogue choices, and they often instigate or are found at the culmination of quests (generally operating like the chain quest temporal pattern described in the previous chapter). In a game like DA:I, manipulating the pacing of events at such crisis moments remains integral, but is only part of the story—much of the work establishing the value conflict occurs gradually over tens of hours of gameplay. The crisis moments are where many of the most poignant points of reflection involving NPCs will take place, where several values that have accrued around the NPC and perhaps values of other NPCs will come into conflict. One such crisis moment involves The Iron Bull (voiced by actor Freddie Prinze, Jr.). He is a member of a particular race/culture, the Qunari, and is operating as
mercenary captain that hires on with the PC. Exploring his crisis moment, and the values evoked by the many other moments necessary to the strength of its impact, will ultimately demonstrate how games may use NPCs to prompt moral reflection.
Iron Bull makes a particularly good case study because he is a double valued character, a character caught between two cultures: his Qunari homeland, a strictly controlled empire that values the greater good over individual freedom, and Orlais, the country he’s been embedded as a spy (or Ben-Hassrath) in for many years. Orlais, like many fantasy cultures, loosely echoes historical Europe and of the two is most likely to resonate with the culture of this game’s typical player. There is a monarchy in Orlais, and below that is a significant disparity between the wealthy class and the poor or subaltern groups, yet personal freedom (or the idea of it, at least) is central. In Iron Bull’s cutscene dialogues, many players will find issues and values that resonate with values of their own culture, and others that may seem abhorrent.
Iron Bull’s crisis quest ultimately involves a clash of values between two different cultures and two integral aspects of Bull’s identity—the ingrained cultural values of his Qunari homeland and the new values he has found through the very real friendship and attachment he has to the men and women of his mercenary company. At the crisis, Iron Bull (and the player) will face the choice of whether to sacrifice Bull’s men or to reject his culture and turn away from his identity and much of what he once believed. To fully understand the weight of that crisis and the range of values the player is prompted to reflect on, however, we have to account for how those values develop and unfold over the course of the game from the character’s introduction up to the crisis moment itself.
Both aspects of Bull’s identity (the communitarian, instrumentalist culture of his
he is fully recruited as an NPC companion. However, the player’s first impression of Iron Bull, initiating the quest to recruit him, comes not with an introduction to the NPC himself but rather his lieutenant, Krem, who he sends to make contact. This proves significant in that it establishes Bull’s identity first, in the player’s eyes at least, as mercenary captain loyal to his men, and that first impression may impact the choice at the crisis moment later on. Following the player’s return from the first unlocked main story quest and a subsequent meeting with advisors, Krem appears in a central location, marked as important by an exclamation point on the map. When approached, a conversation is initiated where Krem introduces the company, offers information about potential foes, and invites the PC to meet Iron Bull and his mercenary company The Chargers. If pressed for information, Krem’s description of Iron Bull, beyond his physical appearance “he’s big and he’s got horns,” proudly announces that, “he leads from the front, he pays well, and he’s a lot smarter than the last bastard I worked for. Best of all he’s professional; he accepts contracts from the first to put up a real offer. You’re the first time he’s gone out of his way to pick a side.”
This initial mapping of the values surrounding Iron Bull establishes some important characteristics. That Iron Bull made unprecedented effort to approach with the information signals usefulness to the PC (both in terms of story and potentially resources in meeting gameplay goals) and identifies him as a potential ally. More crucially, the circumstances and details of the conversation convey a sense of loyalty, unity, and respect between Iron Bull and his men from our first introduction to him. While Bull demonstrates a remarkable openness about his values throughout the game, Krem reveals almost as much about these values— whether through separate dialogue cutscenes or through the playful conversation they engage in
with each other—and meeting Krem before Iron Bull cues us into this relationship, which may further impact the crisis quest.
The first scene Iron Bull actually appears in establishes him as a good leader close to his men, a leader that does what needs to be done alongside them and celebrates with them
afterwards. This echoes Krem’s description of him, but adds for the player a more direct experience of Iron Bull’s leading from the front and his duty to his men. This development is necessary, because the relationship between Bull and his men must be established early and built throughout if it is to be weighted equally against something as significant as Iron Bull’s long- held cultural values in the crisis moment. When the player first goes to recruit Iron Bull, he is seen fighting mutual foes. Before any dialogue cutscene takes place, the player engages in combat alongside Iron Bull and his Chargers, letting the player experience in small part the camaraderie of this company through gameplay before pausing to more fully develop those values in a cutscene. In the cutscene, Bull’s first lines are asking Krem about his men and any injuries they might have. In response to the news of no deaths, he boisterously responds, “That’s what I like to hear! Let the throat cutters finish up and then break out the casks!” Bull greets the Inquisitor with equal exuberance, and in response to being asked if he’s looking for work, “I am… not before my drink though.” What follows is Iron Bull introducing Krem and some joking insults exchanged between the two before Bull gets down to the business of offering to join the PC. The scene serves to reinforce the values of loyalty and respect amongst Bull and his
Chargers previously established, as well as adding a hint of more light-hearted camaraderie. This is a character that works hard and plays hard. Beyond these character qualities, the encounter also demonstrates the alternation between action and reflection—the fight before the cutscene not only sets this moment of reflection apart from any previous moments, but in this particular
case also enacts the characters as a force working together before the player reflects upon this fact.
Iron Bull’s introductory scene also explicitly reveals the other side of his dual nature, setting the player up to watch the development of both as they go from separate and equally important character traits to the crisis when he must choose between them. Bull’s frank admission upfront that he is a Qunari spy (Ben-Hassrath) and would be willing to share
information from their spy network is a bit nebulous as to what gameplay impact it would have, but a player might suppose it holds some impact. This portion of the scene proves crucial, though, to complicating the valuescape that forms around Iron Bull from the beginning. The scene hints at a different set of loyalties here—loyalties to homeland and culture, along with organizations and duties of his homeland. The revelation is tempered at this point by the demonstration of honesty and the service seemingly in the PC’s best interest, yet this
introductory scene still contains the seeds for the complex valuescape of Iron Bull and for the key crisis of values surrounding him.
At several points throughout the game, in between quests and periods of exploration, the player may engage in numerous cutscene dialogues that will further expand Iron Bull’s values, strengthening the player’s memory of those values through repetition while at the same time developing them towards their ultimate conflict. These dialogues take place within the more freeform temporal pattern of game hubs, so the precise order of these cutscenes, and possibly how deep the player delves into them, will vary from player to player. They may not serve as the most poignant and striking points of reflection, taking place amongst numerous other points of reflection as the player will likely move through the hub talking to other characters before and after Iron Bull. Regardless, these cutscene dialogues play an important role laying the foundation
and prompting reflection on both aspects of Bull’s identity—on the one hand the relationship with his men, the PC, and the persona he has taken on in his role as mercenary captain, and on the other hand the Ben-Hassrath spy devoted to his homeland and to the Qun. Interspersed as they are within the broader flow of gameplay, the large amount of information conveyed in these scenes is not given over all at once, but in small chunks with diversions in between, such that the values are triggered again and again to become salient themes in the player’s mind—revisited as emotionally charged episodic memories.
Iron Bull’s values as loyal mercenary captain are most fully developed in the eyes of his lietenant Krem, who as an NPC becomes a sort of stand-in or figurehead not just for the Chargers as a whole, but for the relationship between Bull and his Chargers. Understanding how this relationship differs from the relationship between most leaders and their soldiers is key to the sharp divide experienced during the crisis conflict. Krem’s response to the question of what kind of commander Bull is in one of the early cutscenes offers the best summary:
If you know what you’re doing and hold up your end, he’s easy. He doesn’t accept anything less. He keeps us alive, he leads from the front, and if you’ve an idea that will win the fight he listens. I’ve seen bands whose captains had to prove they were swinging the biggest sword. Bull isn’t like that. The Chargers might give him more lip than you’d expect but every one of us would lay down our lives for the big ass.
Bull’s Chargers are an effective, professional fighting force, and to that end he expects a lot from them as their leader. Yet, this dialogue also reveals Bull as a leader who respects his men beyond their usefulness as a tool to execute his plans, a leader who strives to keep them safe and is willing to accept them as individuals with valid ideas and contributions. In return, Krem indicates, the relationship resembles friendship more than it does rigid hierarchy, and the men reward that relationship with unwavering loyalty when it counts. Contrasted with what the player
will come to know about the more rigid Qunari culture, this differing set of values around leadership and service will inform the discord in Bull’s values at the crisis moment.
Krem’s personal history with Iron Bull reveals another reason for this loyalty, and also unveils Bull as someone willing to make sacrifices for others with no gain or return in mind. Krem relates the tale of how they met, being saved while fleeing Tevinter (the culture of one of the prominent foes in the game) with the sacrifice of Bull’s eye:
The guards had me on the tavern floor when Bull came inside and yelled for them to stop. One of them saw trouble coming and figured he’d finish me off. The guard had a flail. Bull put himself between me and the blow. Big horned idiot, didn’t even know me.
Sacrificing one’s personal safety for a stranger is a value few people exemplify, but many uphold as ideal. This highly regarded value ties directly in to the close relationship between Bull and his lieutenant, Krem. Bull’s appearance is striking for two reasons: his horns, which signify his Qunari culture, and his eye patch, which thanks to this dialogue will come to signify someone who cares for individuals and friendships beyond that culture.
Other cutscenes prove more relevant to Iron Bull’s value of duty to his culture and faith. There are numerous instances where he discusses his beliefs, how the world is viewed in his culture, and his fears of losing that culture and faith. These dialogues are necessary for the player to understand what they would be asking Bull to give up if they wanted him to choose his men over his culture at the crisis moment. They are important for establishing the depths of his convictions such that the player sees a real conflict there, and how the player comes to reflect on these scenes will likely impact the choice made. The Qunari culture aspect of Iron Bull’s nature is revealed interspersed with Bull’s devotion to his men as the game progresses. The process is nearly symmetrical, as the two sets of values build towards their ultimate conflict.
In one dialogue, Iron Bull reveals more details about the Ben-Hassrath, providing some insight to the part of Qunari culture he is most directly involved with and the rigid division of societal control involved. Bull explains:
Ben-Hassrath is actually a general term. You’ve got the secret police who investigate problems inside our territory, you’ve got the re-educators who take care of the problems and fix their minds, or make them disappear, and then you’ve got the spies.
Bull is, of course, a spy, and in dialogue reveals how he serves by passing information to his Qunari contacts while operating in the guise of Iron Bull the mercenary captain. Bull’s allegiance to the Qunari does not merely stem from being raised there—he served and still actively serves its interests. This elevates the cultural friction even beyond that of an expatriate in a foreign land—it is not a case of the persistence of old traditions from a land left behind, but rather a very concrete part of his everyday life.
The cutscene dialogues do more than provide encyclopedic information about Qunari culture and values. They also add a personal touch unveiling how deeply that culture’s values sit with Iron Bull, which will further contribute to the weight of the crisis conflict. In another dialogue, Bull tells the tale of how he became a spy. First sent as a soldier to restore order to an island of contentious territory between the Qunari, Tevinter, and local rebels, he relates the horrors of war and the losses experienced, stating, “One day I woke up and couldn’t think of a damn reason to keep doing my job, so I turned myself in to the re-educators… I wanted them to fix me.” This line of conversation provides a deeper view of how integral Iron Bull’s culture is to him, and his role within that culture. This is a culture that values order, but where free thought is outlawed, sometimes controlled by force. Someone like Iron Bull who is enmeshed in this culture might willingly turn himself in to have his mind altered. Dialogue reveals that those Qunari that reject their culture and the law of the Qun become Tal-Vashoth, and most of those
become savage bandits that must be put down for the safety of everyone. Iron Bull, in his past was in charge of stopping those savages and saw what they became. To Bull, then, losing the Qun is more than parting ways with a culture; it is to lose one’s mind entirely to one’s baser nature. This revelation makes it more understandable why Iron Bull defends his society’s thought control, and would even go so far as to submit to it himself as an alternative.
In some early dialogues of cultural summary, we get the first hints of potential value conflicts—both within the game in the contrast between fictional cultures, and potentially with the player’s own values outside the game. To one question about government and dissent under Qunari culture, Iron Bull responds:
People disagree, yeah, but the priests are there to solve disagreements. Here in Orlais, politicking comes from people putting their own gain ahead of the gains of society. If you do that among the Qunari, the Ben-Hassrath set you straight. Or kill you.
When phrased this way, Iron Bull evokes some of the value conflicts likely at issue in the player’s own culture: corrupt politicians making decisions for their own gain. Yet, the
alternatives offered by Qunari culture are an affront to values of personal liberty, especially in light of Iron Bull’s descriptions of re-education carried out by some of Iron Bull’s fellow Ben- Hassrath (secret police and spies). “The weak minds get bent into the right shape,” Iron Bull explains in another cutscene, “Strong minds like yours, they’d have given you a poison… You’d have been a polite happy laborer for the rest of your life, and you’d have had a handler to help you and make sure you didn’t crap your pants.” The Qunari have a solution to some of society’s most potent value conflicts, but that solution is the near-complete dissolution of free will. Comparing this willingness to sacrifice individuals for societal goals with the more freeform,